Wednesday, January 4, 2017

The
Winter Session 2016 of the Indian Parliament was a disastrous one, causing
disappointment to all the voters who had elected their representatives. This winter session (2016), with repeated
disruptions on the issue of demonetisation of currency, was the least
productive session for both Houses (Lok
Sabha and Rajya Sabha) in the
last 15 years. In spite of the President
of India conveying his anguish, the opposition leaders did not allow the
Parliament to function on the pretext of one reason or the other. Both the ruling and the opposition benches
blamed each other for this ruckus.

Loss of Productivity

The
Lok Sabha worked for 15% of the scheduled time and the Rajya Sabha for
18%. While the Lok Sabha lost 107 hours
of its scheduled time to disruptions, the Rajya Sabha lost 101 hours. Both the
Houses had their least productive Question Hour session in the 16th Lok Sabha.
Only two of the 330 listed questions in Rajya Sabha could be answered orally.
This has been one of the least productive Question Hour sessions for the Rajya
Sabha in the last three Parliaments. In the
Lok Sabha, only 11% of the questions could be answered orally.

Legislative Business

90%
of the planned legislative business could not be transacted; the Lok Sabha
passed the Taxation Bill without discussion.
At the beginning of the session, 19 Bills were listed for consideration
and passage; none of these were passed. Out of the nine Bills listed for
introduction, three were introduced. Only two Bills were passed during this session.

Top 3 Performers (from 1st
June 2014 to 16th December 2016)

The
following Members of the Lok Sabha have scored maximum points from the
beginning of the 16th Lok Sabha till the end of Winter Session
2016. (For the purpose of our analysis,
we considered only initiated debates, and excluded associate debates).

About this Award

Prime Point Foundation has been honouring the top performing Members of Parliament based on their performance in the House. (Questions raised, debates participated, issues raised, private bills introduced and attendance),

From 2012, the Foundation has named this award as 'Sansad Ratna Award'.